Who’s afraid of the open and digital world?

THIS article brings forward the disturbing speed of change in the digital world and social media and proposes the new set of human competencies that will make humanity survive and thrive in the disruptive world.

Humanity is known to react with fear whenever disruption of its comfort zone sets in. Humans have regarded cars as the worst invention of its time, then doubted if it could fly. Disrupting the barter system, the transactional tool we call money was regarded as evil. The fear of the unknown leads to anxiety which in its severe level could breed into panic that clouds the objective pursuit of human history.

This is how Homo sapiens are reacting to the creations of the Homo Deus, the evolutionary intelligent beings who are optimizing science and technology to act like gods in the pursuit of a subjective reality.

But the learned humanity will together overcome the challenges that its very own creations may bring, including the intelligent technologies whose intelligence functions better than the very human intelligence that created them. From the intelligence that transformed their learning to know and to do, humans have also learned to be and to live together. The story of humankind optimizes its special ability of learning to learn, hence, adopt and adapt.

Social animals on social media

There are 4.80 billion social media users around the world (Kepios, April 2023). This is equivalent to 59.9 percent of the total global population. And its population is growing at an unimaginable pace. There are 4.7 new users of social media every single second. The users may not represent unique individuals due to duplicate accounts. In time, the social media users may actually exceed the internet users and even the global population, especially without the restriction of some social media companies for people ages 12 and below. But still, almost 77 percent of the eligible global population are social media users.

The typical social media user actively uses or visits an average of 6.6 different social platforms each month, and spends an average of 2 hours 24 minutes per day using social media (GWI, 2023). Therefore, a modern human spends 15 percent of waking hours using social media.

Added together, the world spends roughly 11.5 billion hours using social platforms each day, which is the equivalent of almost 1.3 million years of human existence.

Facebook remains the world’s most widely used social media platform. Four of these seven platforms generating engagement of at least a billion users per month are owned by Meta.

The list of top social media includes Facebook (2.963 billion monthly active users); YouTube (with potential advertising reach is 2.527 billion); WhatsApp (least 2 billion monthly users); Instagram (2 billion monthly active users); WeChat (1.313 billion monthly active users); and TikTok (ad potentially reach 1.092 billion).

Data Analytics are available for advertisers and scholars to identify the demographics, psychographics and sociographics of these social media users. And the manipulability of the algorithmic programs makes many anxious about the ethical and legal issues, including data privacy, among others.

Implications of the open world

Simply put, social media in the digital world creates an open world. And being cognizant of this reality could make human adaptation easier. In an optimistic view, these realities create an environment for the best of human nature to emerge towards survival and continued existence.

Boundaries are porous in the open world and this calls for collaboration. Agility requires collaboration. With digital technology, organizations are now naked as everyone has the tool to scrutinize. Transparency, therefore, is a must.

The imperatives for innovation benefits from the diversity that results from the collaborative nature of the open world. The open world is most conducive to a collective response. Here is where integrity, trust and leadership become prerequisites to survival.

In the economy of the open world, knowledge is power. The open world simplifies the distribution of knowledge and power. It nurtures freedom towards genuine empowerment. Social media in the open world gives the power to the commons, not anymore upon the institutions we have known in the past. The spirit of generosity is potentiated in an equitable society inhabited by humans with an abundance mentality because indeed there is more for everyone.

Emerging learning and competencies

The open world still requires the foundational knowledge, which includes core content knowledge of the person in the discipline where he operates, but with cross-disciplinary knowledge to be relevant in a wider context. This includes digital and ICT literacy which goes beyond use and includes being able to create and innovate. This is the “learning to know” aspect of 21st century learning.

The “learning to value” aspect of 21st century learning is the humanistic knowledge which includes the life and job skills but more importantly the ethical and emotional awareness coupled with cultural competence.

The meta knowledge in 21st century learning is regarded as “learning to act” competencies that include creativity and innovation, problem solving and critical thinking and communication and collaboration.

Who’s afraid of the open digital world? Those who want to stay in the comfort zone which will never grow them. Those who are trapped by their biases, which will make them only see what they choose to see. Those who refuse to understand the changes that make them respond with panic. And those who do not trust that humanity can co-create what is best for itself and the future that it is inspired to envision.

The best part of human nature comes from its creativity, empathy and stewardship and the new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny. These best parts of human nature will never be learned competencies of other creations. And these best parts of humanity, once tapped by the open world, will bring out the best in humans for its era and beyond, the way humankind has succeeded in its history.